how many of you guys have tried to
record somebody who sings and plays
guitar at the same
time is that wonderful thing to
do all right so Meredith is about to
change your life in a good way in a good
way so we have developed at flux we have
developed a um a an interesting trick on
how to have the same human being um
human being right so yeah um both play
and sing at the same time this is well
knocks by the way ladies and gentlemen
we're using two Royal ribbon microphones
the thing about ribbons is that they're
they're mellow sounding which is great
okay especially if you're working with a
digital system where everything is
pretty much a mirror of what you put in
you get no help from a tape machine you
get no softening of anything it's a
mirror so it's nice to have a microphone
that's that sounds smooth and mellow and
even because most people tend to pick a
large diaphragm condenser and shove it
onto the singer the problem is that that
was designed to go through eight rows of
Transformers plus a piece of tape now
you're going through a DC coupled
converter that does nothing for you and
everything turns out so bright that your
teeth hurt every time the singer sings
the chorus right okay so that's why
we've switched to using uh Royers on
vocals as much as we can depending on
the singer in this particular
singer who's here uh it sounds pretty
darn good so on the vocal we we have the
new Royal 101 and on the guitar we have
the
sf2 the thing about ribbon besides the
fact that they sound smooth and they're
even and it's not as bright as old
condensers is they are figure eight you
know what a figure eight is all right so
if you have the microphone like this it
picks up both the front and the back and
it has a wonderful thing is here on the
side it has amazing rejection borderline
to nothing so if you have a ribbon
microphone you go blah blah blah you
hear blah blah blah if you go blah blah
blah you
hear using
that um so if you imagine if you see
here you have the front of the mic and
the back of the mic and this is the
rejection now if you're smart enough to
use this microphone so that this part
picks up his vocal and this part reject
the guitars you're not going to get a
lot of guitar in the vocal mic and and
if you use the the guitar microphone and
you do the same trick when you put the
rejection era area of the ribbon towards
the vocal you ain't going to get a lot
of vocal in the guitar mic is that
possible absolutely demonstration can
you just do the first
[Music]
verse I'm solid
steel and scolding steam I'm I'm a car
in the
machine I'm sick and tired of the same
routine and I'm sinking like a
[Music]
submarine wonderful so let's listen to
that you know right away it sounds good
right you play you're like oh nice okay
now there's a few things let's listen to
Just the vocal mhm
I'm solid steel rocking right scolding
steam I'm a car
theine okay you see the separation you
want to hear that again let's let's play
that
[Music]
again I'm Solid
Steel in scolding steam I'm a in theine
[Music]
all right can we hear the guitar mic
just for entertainment
sake
I'm see what I
mean buy yourself some
ribbons it works I can make a record out
of this no problem okay so if we switch
back to the vocal here's one of the
things that might happen if you have a
slightly insecure
singer no
not this one this one rules the world
but if you have a slightly insecure
singer all 99% of them uh they'll say oh
but it sounds muffled no no it doesn't
sound muffled it sounds
right but they are singers so you got to
deal with them um
so I'm talking about the ones who don't
write their own
songs um so and it and a ribbon is it
darker microphone that's the whole point
okay but it's nice to add a little bit
of a thing in the high end uh to make it
shine a little bit it's going to have
two things first you'll work less hard
at the mix and B you'll shut the singer
up which is a wonderful thing so what we
have done here is we inserted a uh
dangerous back EQ which is their new EQ
that just came out in line and we're
going to EQ
up um we're going to put it after the
preamp before the converter right right
so microphone preamp EQ into the
converter this is to show you that if
you don't get exactly the tone you
want you know it's good you know the
microphone is the Right microphone you
can tell but you know it needs a little
bit
of then you can insert some processing
to make it sound cool so in this
particular case we're going to use the
back CQ because it's so smooth and it's
it's really really gentle and it sounds
great so what I'm doing is I'm I'm
adding the uh I'm high passing the
bottom to remove the rumble adding a
couple DBS
at
166 and um I am adding like two DBS at
4.8k shelf and let's do another quick
recording of that same part
[Music]
please I'm Solid
Steel in scolding steam I'm a car the
[Music]
machine I'm sick and tired of the same
routine and I'm sinking like a
submarine Okay let's listen to
that I'm solid
steel and scolding steam I'm a car in
the would you be kind enough to compare
with the previous
one I'm solid steel sounds great but
it's a little darking steam I'm
a
theine new one with EQ I'm solid
Ste in scolding Ste
a
the okay so you see what it did right
okay now if you hear again can you play
that again I'm going to no I'm I meant M
sorry
I'm Solid
Steel in scolding steam I'm
a listen I'm going we're going to Play
It Again listen to Solid Steel I'm a cog
so solid steel I'm a cog listen to those
two transients and listen to the energy
in those two words let's play it again
I'm solid
Ste in scolding steam I'm a cog in the
ma
[Music]
do you hear this little Peaks coming out
okay so why now we're using the UA um
l610 Mark I which is a 2610 preamp so a
two preamp like a traditional 610 preamp
and it has an la2 compressor in it and
that's we tend to love that on vocal in
this particular case with this
particular microphone in this particular
environment with what we'll have for
breakfast this morning um there's that
little Peak going on right now I know in
my heart that the microphone's good
but I'm not happy with that Peak because
I know it's going to kick my butt
tomorrow when I mix it so why don't we
see what happens if we switch
preamps to see if we can get a better
tone from the same setup so we're going
to switch preamps 710 uh the yeah the
4710 is what we have left so 4710 number
four which would be line
13 and let's see what that does when you
stuck over time you'll learn that ah
this is this is that problem
this is this problem so right now we're
going to switch between the two U um
preamps maybe we'll uh because he had
the breakfast for the Hampton in this
morning maybe he cannot use a two preamp
you don't know so maybe he needs a good
solid state preamp with an open sound so
um that was fantastic you should do it
[Music]
again I'm solid still
and scolding steam I'm a cog in the
[Music]
machine I'm sick and tired of the same
routine and I'm sinking like a
submarine I'd like to point out the
insane consistency of this human being
right here thank
you what you don't know is this is all
this scam is lip syncing to the same
recording
play all right so this is with so we
started with the LA 610 preamp and the
la2 star compression a little bit
compression maybe a couple DBS now we're
switching to the new 410 4710 preamp
with a little bit of 11 C6 1176 T
compression the setting I'm on right now
are we on the fast we on the fast so
we're catching the trans let's see how
that sounds I'm solid steel Aha and
scolding steam I'm a car in the
machine same Vibe but without the Peaks
I'm sick and tired of the same rou and
I'm play the second
a610 thank
you I'm solid still see ining
Ste
the
4710 I'm solid still opens up and scold
Ste
a the
machine I put my money on this one so
it's subtle you may have to close your
eyes to hear it but the reality is
that's the difference between you know
something that sounds a little like
pressure cooked like a little smothered
and something that just sounds open you
have to try different things those
little differences are the differences
between a demo and a record okay you
guys heard the thing would you like to
hear the difference again who would like
to hear the difference again you cool
you okay let's do that again let's play
the ELA 610 first two phrases and then
the 4710 first two phrases I won't speak
in the middle so you can memorize the
sound I'm solid
steel and scolding steam I'm a car in
the
[Music]
mine I'm solid
steel and scolding steam I'm a c in the
[Music]
machine it's pretty you guys heard it
right so now uh let's talk about that
you know I hate di why are you using the
DI because as we know after working what
do you mean as we know I do not know
what you're talking
about um we've worked with this singer
will before and uh and he plucks very
lightly so sometimes the guitar to vocal
ratio when we come to mix it as you know
um it's fighting so um there is a little
bit of you know vocal in the guitar mic
and vice versa so you bring up the
guitar to get more guitar and you get
more vocal um so we take a DI I always
take a DI um of a guitar uh never of a
bass um but yeah so we need it just for
slight reinforcement just you know when
when we come to mixing to be able to
boost the guitar on the cheter parts and
not get more vocal yeah yeah ask
and for the DI we use the uh the
built-in hey input on the one of the
4710 channels and U I always complain um
about the fact that uh the DI sounds
like crap and that Meri records the DI
and I always use it in the mix
exactly so could we hear the sound of
the DI on on one of the existing
recordings oh yeah let's see
[Music]
standard yeah well it's not as horrible
as some but um so can we hear the uh can
we hear the DI and the microphone
together
please see that air only a microphone
can give you
[Music]
that and can I hear the the just the
microphone mhm
[Music]
I'm Sol
still okay I will try really hard to not
use a DI
tomorrow okay and I probably will fail
say um all
right cool questions on this yes why
would you go ahead record guitar first
and
the very good production question why
would you not do that because all the
love is gone if you do that no no I'm
dead serious all the love all the music
goes away we've tried it with Will who's
a phenomenal guitar player and as you
may have noticed a phenomenal singer so
You' think with that kind of skill set
we could do that every time we try to
record the stuff different separately
because I'm a stickler for highi and
some of the songs where he trums it's
more difficult and every time we just
don't like the way it sounds we just
don't like the way it sounds because
their life is gone you know the
difference between going to see you know
you go to see a really great band live
right and you're like wow man that's
awesome you go and you actually buy the
CD if they don't give it to you for
free and you go home and you put it on
and it sucks how many times did that
happen every time right that's because
somebody came in and said okay go record
your guitar part and now go record your
vocal that's not how that music is made
that's not music that's puzzle it's a
different thing I am enduring the rent
of a New York City studio in Manhattan
for one reason so that we can track live
band all together make music all
together enough with the peace meal
stuff it's horrible that's good enough
for Britney and Gaga and for everybody
who makes
music make music
right so that that would be
why um I feel very strongly about that
could you tell um so now I would like to
uh to uh is there any um valent player
uh from Indiana with a dry sense of
humor in the room